Tucson School Board: Don't lock up knowledge, return books to students now!

This month the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) succumbed to was demonstrably closing the achievement gap for students in Tuscon.

Last week, the books we used in these classes were rounded up and placed in a "said “I suspect that TUSD is using many books which were never legally approved... we have to track those books down and either remove them or go through proper curriculum approvals.”

A list of already "banned" or boxed-up books includes:

“Occupied America: A History of Chicanos" “Critical Race Theory,” Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” “Chicano!: the History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement.”

The school board is brave students are pushing forward with a lawsuit to fight for their rights. Please support their fight against boxing off knowledge and sign the petition demanding the immediate return of these books.

Letter to

Member, Tucson Unified School BoardAlexandre Borges Sugiyama, Ph.D

Tuscon Unified School Board

President, Tucson Unified School BoardDr. Mark Stegeman

and 3 others

Clerk, Tucson Unified School BoardMichael Hicks

Member, Tucson Unified School BoardMiguel Cuevas

Member, Tucson Unified School BoardAdelita S. Grijalva

I just signed the following petition addressed to: Tuscon School Board.

----------------Don't lock up knowledge, return books to students now!

This month the Tucson Unified School District voted to comply with the state's misguided ban on Mexican American Studies (MAS). They then decided to box up and cart away students' books to a "district storage facility."

Now, teachers are being censored in class and can't teach anything that the district believes has to deal with “race or oppression” -- even Shakespeare! This, despite the fact that the vilified MAS program was demonstrably closing the achievement gap for students in Tuscon.

With all of the bad publicity, district spokespeople are going out of their way to say that these acts do not equal censorship and that they support free speech. If board members truly support free speech, however, the least they should do is immediately remove these books from the "district storage facility" and make them available in each school's library.

I call on the Tucson school board to immediately return these books -- placing them in the libraries of the schools they were taken from. Knowledge cannot be boxed off and carried away from students who want to learn!